Hell's Prison

God, through modern revelation, disclosed that no one knows the horror of hell save those who are consigned there. God has not revealed the end thereof. Hell is worse than anything people can imagine apparently.

Jesus Christ declared through Joseph Smith and speaking of the Father,

Wherefore, He saves all except them (the sons of perdition)—they shall go away into everlasting punishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment—And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows; Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof; Nevertheless, I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but straightway shut it up again; Wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except those who are ordained unto this condemnation. Doctrine and Covenants 76:44-48

Now, the hell of which the Savior speaks of to Joseph is called outer darkness. Very few will be "ordained to" that "condemnation." The hell that parallels the traditional understanding is known and revealed and the end thereof exists. Let's explore this hell or Prison.

The souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection. Alma 40:13

Far from flattering, hell is a temporary place where the souls of the wicked go to await the resurrection. All the souls of the wicked, which allowed themselves to be governed by the evil impulses of evil spirits will still be under the influences of those evil spirits. It is prison because misery reigns. It is prison because the wicked do not know peace.

The suffering is as "fire and brimstone" because as brimstone burns inside-out, the souls of man will burn with the knowledge of abusing themselves by disobeying the laws of God. The "lake of fire" is the mutual suffering all the unrepentant will endure in agony.

The fire is not physical in nature because the spirits are not physical. It is a spiritual power that burns on the minds of men, not their bodies--not because spiritual things lack substance, but because spiritual things cannot perish.

It will end. The wicked will be resurrected along with the righteous in the due time of the Lord. They will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ again for most of them. They will be redeemed from hell or prison and given their eternal reward.

The article "Heaven's Paradise," describes how heaven is paradise and how hell is prison. Hell is not an eternal place in the sense that it lasts forever for each individual. Hell is the place where those who have been wicked and unrepentant in mortal life await their judgment in a state of anguish caused by their knowledge (or lack of knowledge) of God and their confusion about their state of being.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil. Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection. Alma 40:13-14

Hell is an eternal state in that God continues to progress with His children accepting His Son's atonement and becoming heirs of eternal life, or rejecting His Son and becoming heirs of lower kingdoms of glory. In other words, as long as God has children who come to an earth and sin, there will always be a state of hell.

God is eternal and never ends, neither will His children cease to come to places called "Earth" to live.

There are two manifestations and delineating definitions of hell in the Scriptures. However, for this article, the definition refers to the state of humankind following mortal death only receives attention.

Though each individual's hell is temporary, the psychological status of hell or prison will always remain a place prepared for the children of men who ever rejected God. Said Nephi,

And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. 2 Nephi 9:12

Nephi assures us that hell ends for each soul after he or she has suffered for their own sins having rejected Jesus Christ. There will be a resurrection and judgment so that each will receive a just reward. Nephi further describes the filthy ones--those who could not even make it to earth,

And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end, 2 Nephi 9:16.

The devil and his angels will be the ones burning forever. They have no physical body, no kingdom, or glory because never at any time did they accept Christ or His Atonement.They are the ones who will be filthy still, and a small segment of humanity. The rest of us whether good or bad will be cleansed of our sins and receive a mansion or hut in the Kingdom of God. Nephi clearly establishes that there are two hells--the spirits in prison version and the outer darkness version.

Hell has two meanings in the scriptures. The meaning that this article focused on is that it is temporary for each individual who goes to that place because all the souls of mortals will be resurrected as a free gift of Jesus Christ. That form of hell ends. The second definition of hell is reserved for Satan and his angels. along with a small segment of resurrected people.